Ferrell traced his unlikely path from a Sports Information degree — 'a program so difficult, so arduous, that they discontinued the major eight years after I left' — to comedy stardom. It started when a USC professor, Ronald Gottesman, who co-edited the Norton Anthology of American Literature, caught him crashing a lecture disguised as a janitor from Physical Plant. Instead of scolding him, Gottesman invited him back repeatedly, weaving the surprise visits into lectures on Walt Whitman. After SNL, one reviewer called him 'the most annoying newcomer,' which he pinned to his office wall. Studios wouldn't make Anchorman for three years. But through it all, Ferrell just kept throwing darts — bad stand-up about Star Trek, characters nobody asked for — until they stuck.